First of all, apologies for letting so much time pass between posts; we've all been extremely busy since the end of our Turkish excursion. The last half of our Turkish excursion was very satisfying. After leaving the dreadful Batihan Beach Resort, we visited the ruins at Ephesus, probably the most impressive set of ruins in Turkey. Much of the site has been restored over the years. Here's a picture of our group in front of the restored Library of Celsus in Ephesus.
Group at the Library of Celsus in Ephesus
From Ephesus, we traveled on to Konya, an important city for the mystic sect of Islam, Sufism. Konya is the site of the tomb of the famous Sufi poet, Rumi, which is one of, if not the most important sites for Sufis to visit.
We spent the night in Konya, and once we were rested up, we traveled to the region of Cappadocia, famous for it's bizzarre, surreal landscape. Cappadocia, located in east central Turkey, is a pretty incredible place. Cappadocia's distinctive landscape is the product of volcanic ash deposited by ancient, now dormant volcanoes. Over the centuries, wind, rain, and rivers have sculpted the rock into a variety of surreal forms, including the famous "fairy chimneys. "Distinctive" is probably too light of an adjective to describe this place. I don't think any of us have ever seen any naturally formed scenery that comes even close to this place. My descriptions and even my pictures cannot do it justice. It's like a hopped up version of the Badlands, literally the Badlands on psychedelic drugs. Exploring Cappadocia was probably the highlight of excursion for the majority of the group. Here's a couple of photos to give you just the palest sense of this place:
Goreme: City in the Rocks
Ash Rock Spires
Some of our group and our excursion guide, Aida, in the Underground City
From Cappadocia, we had a long bus drive to Ankara, the capital of Turkey. In Ankara, we visited the massive mausoleum of Ataturk, the first president of Turkey. We also visited the Anatolian Archeological Museum, which was apparently voted the best museum in Europe in 2006 (surprising, since Ankara is located in Asia, not Europe). Regardless of the status of its dubious awards, the museum was still quite fascinating. It probably had the most impressive collection of ancient artifacts of any of the museums we've seen so far, maybe with the exception of the Archeological museum in Istanbul. Professor Langerak was particularly enthralled by the museum's exhibits; the museum staff had to kick him out at closing time.
After spending the night in Ankara, we set off on the final leg of our bus travels, bound for Istanbul. We made it back to Istanbul in the early evening. Our flight for Morocco departed at 6am on Wednesday, so our last night in Istanbul was dedicated to hasty re-packing and light sleep. Even though our flight time to Morocco wasn't nearly as bad as our first set of flights from the U.S. to Turkey, Wednesday ended up being an extremely long day. Ultimately, I think our travels to Morocco deprived us of just as much sleep as our travels to Turkey. Nonetheless, we were able to rest up well on Wednesday night.
On Thursday the 1st of October, we toured the Arabic Language Institute in Fez where we will be taking all of our Arabic and Sociology courses during the next three weeks. ALIF is beautiful; the courtyard has a wonderful garden and many of the classrooms are decorated with intricate mosaics and plaster-works. After our ALIF orientation, we set off on a tour of the Medina, the ancient walled city of Fez, with our guide Ali. The Medina is extremely confusing, a bewildering network of narrow, twisting streets, innumerable turns and side alleys. Ali gave us some particularly apropos advice in regards to navigating the Medina; "To learn, you must lose your reason. To learn, you must lose yourself". I wouldn't be surprised if Ali had dabbled in philosophy at some point in his past.
In addition to Ali's wise words, highlights of our Medina tour included a visit to an old-school textile shop and a tour of the Dar Dbagh Chouara Tannery, which was featured on the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" and on ABC's "The Amazing Race". According to Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs", working in the tannery is supposed to be the third hardest job in the world. We were able to survey the tannery from a terrace high above the tannery vats, and even from that elevated vantage point, the smell was nearly overpowering. If they can bear the stench, I'm sure many of the girls on the trip will venture back to the tannery to haggle for some high-quality leather bags.
Last Friday morning, we had our first Arabic class. We are learning the Moroccan dialect of Arabic, known as Darija, which actually means "dialect" in Arabic. After a lecture in the evening, we met our host families for the first time. I'm sure many of you already know, but for those of you who are out of the loop, all of us will be living with host families for the duration of our stay in Fez. All of us elected to stay in the Medina; living in this baffling labyrinth is sure to be an unparalleled experience.
After a week, all of us are still alive and kicking, surviving our home stays and our classes in style. Fez is far different from Istanbul and Turkey. This place certainly has a greater degree of character, manifested most obviously in the strange sights and smells of the Medina, which can be nearly overpowering at times. I hope we can embrace Ali's advice; Fez and Morocco will be a place that challenges us to 'lose our reason', to get out of our comfort zone in order to learn something new. I'm sure it's gonna be a fun and wild ride!
Until next time,
Luke P
P.S. I'll try to post some pictures of Fez within the next couple of days, mainly in order to give all of you a feel for the insanity of the Medina. Stay tuned!
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